Add MS 62994

MATTEO PALMIERI: Liber de Temporibus, Italy, Florence; circa 1460. Latin. This world history was composed by Matteo Palmieri of Florence (circa 1406-circa 1475). Events from the Creation to the Incarnation are summarised (ff. 3-3v), followed by yearly events from A.D. 1-1448, with a multi-columnar layout recording the year, the year of the reigning pope, a summary of annual events, the year of the emperor, and the year of the creation. The layout was designed by Palmieri to aid comprehension and he exhorts subsequent copyists to preserve it, checking it against the exemplar (f. 2v). The prologue (f. 1) records that it was compiled to instruct Piero de' Medici, son of Cosimo de' Medici, through the deeds of the great. It was based on the chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome. An ownership stamp has been crudely, but effectively erased from f. 1, which also carries an unidentified coat-of-arms in its lower border (imperial eagle sable on or, quartering dimidiation argent and gules surmounted by triple fleur-de-lis, the whole surmounted by an argent crest wreath or bar). The text is printed by G. Scaramella, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, N.S., XXVI, pt.1 (1906), pp. xxi-xxii and 2-127. Purchased from Alan G. Thomas, Cat. 46, item 5, 20 March 1984.

Vellum; ff. 100. Sec. fol.: 'ut sique res'. 283 x 198mm. Paper pastedown and flyleaf to front and back. Gatherings (10) of 10. Ruled in faint lead-point for 5 columns of 27 lines. Written space 180 x 135mm. Script is a humanistic book script (littera antiqua) by a scribe who has signed his work in a colophon in red and black (f. 100v), which reads 'Leonardus calendinus presbiter pratensis transscripsit'. Calendinus was rector of San Vicenzo at Prato and also wrote and signed Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MSS. Ross. 580 (a Josephus, 1453), Vat. Lat. 1788 (Pius II, aft. 1461) and Vat. Ottob. lat. 226 and 114 (Jerome). See J. Ruyschaert in Bibliofilia, LX (1958), pp. 328-30, figs 1-3, and in Enea Silvio Piccolomini Papa Pio II (1968), p. 255, n. 54; Bénédictins de Bouveret, Colophons, IV (1976), no. 12433, p. 40. Some use of rustic capitals for continuation script; rubrics in pink. Modern pencil arabic quire numeration at the beginning of quires. Much worming to the rear of the volume and some to the front. Modern white vellum binding over boards.

Decoration consists of a major 4-line white-vine initial A (f. 1), of gold with white-vine ornament on a coloured ground (the outline emphasized in blue), extending into a partial border in similar style, inhabited by a bird and a butterfly, with extensions of penwork and gold bezants. A detached border at the foot carries two putti supporting a laurel wreath containing the coat-of-arms. Minor initials in blue square capitals. Paragraphus symbols throughout in alternate red and blue. Decorated by the same illuminator as Bodleian Library MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 138, a Lactantius written in Florence by Niccolo Berti in 1458 (see O. Pacht and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, II (1970), pl. xxiv, no. 267).